N3808

Lewis & Clark Expedition - Bicentennial

Fred's Anecdotal Note

 Corporal Richard Warfington, The French Canadian Voyagers and the Keelboat

On March 31, 1804, the captains designated Corporal Richard Warfington to command a group of five soldiers and eight French Canadian voyagers who would travel with the main party to the winter camp with the Mandans. He was born in 1777 in North Carolina and was highly thought of. In the spring of 1805, his party would return in the keelboat to St. Louis with communications and collected specimens.

The keelboat was 55' long, 8' wide and had a 32' mast. An elevated 10' deck at the stern created a cabin. The hold was 3l' and could carry a l2-ton cargo of supplies and trade goods. The boat could move by sailing, rowing, pushing with poles, and towing by rope from shore. On April 7, 1805, the Corps of Discovery in the two pirogues and six canoes set out to the Pacific. On the same day, the keelboat sailed for St. Louis. That night, at a camp on the river, Lewis wrote, "We gave Richard Warfington, our corporal, the charge of the keelboat and crew, and confided to his care our maps and dispatches and a number of articles to the president of the United States."